Help Support AFH California Wild Fire Response!

As the fires in California continue to rage, Architecture for Humanity is already on the move, with architects planning reconstruction, and the local Los Angeles and San Diego chapters helping families and businesses in their times of crisis. The San Diego Chapter, Rebuild, responded earlier this week by volunteering in the evacuation center at Qualcomm Stadium. Architecture for Humanity Los Angeles is also partnering with Rebuild San Diego to mount a regional-wide response including sharing information regarding local municipalities’ relief efforts. In the meantime, AFH needs your support- financial and volunteer aid. Donate directly here, or if you’re in the area, go volunteer!

Volunteer opportunities for Qualcomm Stadium can be found near Gate A. Approximately 400 evacuated senior citizens (ages 70 to 90) were sent to San Diego High, 1402 Park Blvd. AFH San Diego Rebuild are there at the moment, still seeking food, toiletries, bedding, etc. Volunteers near the Del Mar area can contact 858-792-5245 for further instructions. To make donations of feed and hay for horses, contact 858-509-5245.
+ Architecture for Humanity+ Rebuild via Open Architecture Network

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4 Comments

GShoreyNovember 13, 2007 at 4:18 am

What about reforestation for humanity? How come no body is considering expanding on California’s existing forest areas now that the chance presents itself? Why isn’t anybody considering rebuilding the forest areas and removing the settlements from there? I will certainly agree with jf’s comment on “it not being too great a leap to say …….. ” And if one doesn’t really agree, or this seems too rhetorical, then i would go so far as to question the humanitarian angle of Architecture for Humanity. Is this humanity at the cost of nature?

You can also go to socalfirehelp.com and register your name if you’ve been displaced by the fire and looking for housing or if you own a home and are willing to lease it out or donate. The site has helpful information, resources and links for evacuees too.

Your point is one of the lessons that I think we can take awy from this horrible disaster. There is no value gained from homes and privately-held property being torched. But one thing that I hope the general public takes away from this is that, perhaps, building homes in the path of terrain that MUST cyclically burn in order for it to sustain itself, is an INCREDIBLE error of human judgement. And it is not too great a leap to say that we shouldn’t build in the middle of OTHER natural ecologies. Development can occur IN UNION with nature, not IN PLACE of nature.

The Los Angeles chapter of Architecture for Humanity is organizing an event to host this kind of discussion next Saturday, Nov. 3rd. Please visit our site www,afhla.org for more details, and join our email list for updates on these upcoming events. Thanks for listening!

dustinOctober 26, 2007 at 1:27 pm

devil’s advocate:

i know it sounds insensitive and i definitely do not mean it as such, but do you think that our fire/forest management (i.e. not letting *natural* wild fires burn – for fear of timber value and real estate loss) is partially responsible here (duff/underbrush build up and then when a fire finally does happen it has lots of fuel, more than it would if they happened annually)? and really with all the water transport that supporting desert communities requires it may be that there is a “greener” solution than rebuilding a city that shouldn’t really exist in the first place, at least not in its current incarnation…

solution (i hope somebody is listening):

rebuild with fire proof materials – materials that are appropriate to the region (cob, adobe, cement/concrete – not wood shipped from somewhere else) and when rebuilding pay special attention to rainwater catchment systems, composting toilets, greywater reuse, native landscaping/vegetation and low water usage in general…

check out the living building challenge – it’s many great examples of how a building ought to be re/built…